Tag Archives: Idaho

Leaving Santa Cruz, we trek northward, spending a night in Klamath Falls, Oregon and another in Redmond, Oregon, before landing once again in Coeur d ‘Alene, Idaho.

It’s all business this time, as the tenets who had been renting our house for the past umpteen years, decided to quit paying rent, and generally trash the house before skipping off.

Soooo, here we are. Many truckloads of garbage hauled off, lots of cleaning, scrubbing, and raking finds us now actually camping in a real house!

Amazing where life takes us.

I’ve temporarily traded in my camera for a paintbrush, and instead of hiking along beautiful rivers and canyons, we now are getting in our steps pounding the concrete inside of huge big box home improvement stores wandering the miles of aisles in air conditioned comfort.

A real change of scenery for sure.

I’m not planning on documenting this transitional part of our journey, I’m way too busy, and honestly don’t find it that interesting to share with those outside of our immediate family. But that being said, hopefully soon, we will have some opportunities to explore some awesomely beautiful country around these parts, and then I’ll be slinging the camera again and sharing the wonders of nature and rugged splendor.

We really are still alive and kicking…just kicking up different sorts of dust for awhile.

I’ll try to pop in here every once in awhile, hopefully with some birds, or bears, or bees, or some critters or natural wonders to share, but it probably won’t be real frequent.

And for fun, here’s where we were last year at this time. Crater Lake…ah…the memories! The people we met there, the blue lake, and lovely campsite we had.

Blue, Blue of Crater Lake

Hoping everyone is enjoying their own journeys this summer!

❧

And a few links to some past “bear posts” just because someone was asking to see Bears. 🙂

Leaving Idaho, we pulled ourselves away from Harrison and the Osprey, and passed by St. Maries, where we wandered along the gorgeous St. Joe River.

Even though campgrounds line the river, many were full of campers / aka fishermen enjoying some fishing.

As night was fast falling, we were kind of grumpily looking for a nice little spot, when we came across a dirt road pullout with two campfire rings right on the river. We pulled in, set up, ate some quick dinner, and settled in until morning.

View From The Van Door

Rugged mountains, clear flowing water, and many colors of beautiful rocks greeted us along with the morning sun.

The Beautiful And Rugged St. Joe River

We walked the river, enjoyed the scenery, collected some rocks, guessed what they were, and wondered about minerals.

Bounty Of Color

At one point in life, we would have hauled this bounty of collected rocks around with us, and taken them home for memories. Now, after learning to enjoy life with less stuff, we created a sacred circle of the rocks on top of a stump and left them for the next person to enjoy, or for Mother Nature to take back to the river with next winter’s storms and flooding river banks. We’re learning to enjoy the beauty of the moment, without having to possess it’s artifacts.

Indian Pipe

Growing right along a path, where back country hikers travel off the main trail to camp in this same spot, we found this delicate little beauty, Monotropa hypopithys.

And lots of these purple Asters.

Wild Asters

Languishing in the Beauty, we eventually packed up and continued down the highway, which, by the way, turned into gravel the moment we crossed the Montana border. Stopping for a toilet break at the next camping spot we were gently reminded that we were now entering GRIZZLY country.

I really hope that a hunter out hunting bear knows the difference between a black bear and a Grizz, but I suppose unfortunately there are some hunters out there that really don’t know. Anyway, I really enjoy these signs posted everywhere. They are educational for the rest of us!

We left Coeur d’Alene and headed south to the bottom tip of Coeur d’Alene lake. We hadn’t been here in years and really wanted to see the area, and although still beautiful, the lake here is now also lined with million dollar homes, and resorts. And Osprey.

We stopped in Harrison, still a cute and quaint little town, where we enjoyed some really good coffee (sometimes very hard to find on the road) and bought a book on birding in Montana…since that was our destination.

Harrison has a wonderful wildlife refuge area, so we took a side trip and wandered around the lake marshes and rivers.

Osprey Keeping Watch

Everywhere we go, these beautiful Osprey are on the increase, with people telling us how they see so many more of them than ever before! They are great birds to watch and study, being so big and present.

We watched this family for awhile. Mom, Dad, and Baby in the middle. (just a wee little head barely poking up between the twigs.)

Osprey Family

We watched as dad went off for a quick meal for junior.

Leaving On A Hunting Trip “Be Back Soon”

Mom is waiting patiently while junior is screeching up a storm.

Hope He Hurries Back. This Baby Is Hungry!

It’s hard to see below, but dad has a nice fish in his talons. I think this whould make any fisherman green with envy to see how quickly and adept he went and picked out his kids meal.

Bringing Home The Dinner

Dad gives the fish to mom, who in turn is feeding junior.

Happy Family

Now that everybody is happy, well fed, and well caffeinated, we can get on with our trip along the St. Joe River.

Driving through the Nevada emptiness, we turn off the highway and follow some sketchy directions found on the internet, following miles and miles of gravel roads in search of a cool spot to camp. We arrive at this quaint little used spot along a creek, complete with shade and a very quiet and level camping site. It’s 100 degrees out, but here by the water, we are cozy and comfortable. Lucky Day.

The drive through southern Idaho along the Little Salmon River is beautiful and scenic. We spend a night at a campground outside of McCall. We quickly visit the town of McCall before heading out, but I couldn’t recognize it at all, remembering it just a bit from visiting friends there long, long ago.

We drive past lush green meadows, alive and vibrant, home to what seem to be REALLY happy looking cows. Velvet green forests blanket the hills, there’s water everywhere. Rivers, streams, creeks, and waterfalls. The land is beautiful, as I remember.

We pass steep rocky mountains populated with miles of pine trees, and little old log cabins dotting the hillsides. It’s July. The bottomlands are green, the treeless hills are brown. There’s an odd mixture of remnants of old homesteads, scattered among rusty metal industrial trash, peppered with modern new lodges catering to the tourists with dollars dangling from deep pockets.

Nearing the Northern panhandle, (that skinny little arm of Idaho) the landscape changes from rolling wheat fields back to forested mountains. I’m lost. The towns I remember no longer exist. The little smoke shops and general stores are nowhere to be seen. In their place are many, many new shiny metal thrown up buildings, and huge made to look old cabin style resort structures. The little winding two lane highway I drove daily, has been replaced by a mega four lane freeway.

I can’t even find the road that I once lived on. The tribal buildings are monolithic. The casino stands stately in the field.

Finally arriving south of Coeur d’ Alene, there is a yacht club where once a simple restaurant lived. I have memories of my co-worker and friend, who lived south along the highway, boating to work, because she could never drive the little snow covered road. Now, another friend tells me, it takes her about ten minutes in the winter, and the drive is a breeze.

The downtown area has been completely rebuilt. Mazes of new buildings, high rises, and hip little shops line the once simple main street.

I feel like I’ve been left in “Happy Days”, while the town fast forwarded into some futuristic movie. It’s been 33 years since I’ve lived here, and even the brief visits since, seem foggy.

Coeur d’Alene Lake

It is still as gorgeous as ever. And I feel like I am finding a bit of my heart, left here, many, many years ago. So much love, so much sadness, much growth and introspection took place in these mountains and along the lake edges when I was young.